This invention relates to food processing machines, and, more particularly, to a meat slicing machine capable of forming slices, strips and cubes from frozen, cooked or raw meat.
In the restaurant industry and particularly in the Chinese food restaurant industry, it is common for food, and in particular meat, to be cut into slices, strips and cubes. Cutting meat into slices, strips or cubes by hand can be a laborious and slow process, and uniformity of the slices, strips or cubes depends upon the skill of the person doing the cutting. In Chinese cooking “slices” are slabs of meat typically approximately four millimeters thick having varying lengths and widths. “Strips” are long pieces of meat about typically four millimeters thick and eight millimeters wide. “Cubes” are typically eight millimeters wide, eight millimeters thick and eight millimeters long.
There are, in the prior art, numerous examples of apparatus for slicing meat into strips. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,236 of Repisky et al., there is shown an apparatus for cutting food into strips or cubes that has first and second counter rotating shafts, each having an array of cutter discs thereon. The cutter discs on one shaft are offset from corresponding discs on the other shaft and form cutter pairs therewith. Guide means extending between cutter pairs define the maximum thickness of meat that can be cut, and the discs forming a pair overlap a distance equal to or greater than one-half the spacing between the guide means. A hand crank is coupled to rotate one of the blade carrying shafts. The other blade carrying shaft is coupled by gears to be rotated by the first blade carrying shaft at a different angular velocity than the first shaft. The device is designed to be modular so that a second set of blade carrying shafts having blades with a different spacing than the first set can replace the first set of blades to make wider or thinner slices through the meat.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,786,536 of Deckert, there is shown an apparatus that simultaneously tenderizes and slices a slab of meat into strips. A plurality of spaced tenderizing blades is mounted on a first shaft and a lesser plurality of spaced slicing blades is mounted on a second shaft closely adjacent and parallel to the first shaft. The slicing blades, which are fewer in number than the tenderizing blades, are interleaved therewith. The two shafts are geared together so that the slicing blades revolve faster than the tenderizing blades, and the tenderizing blades penetrate the meat and pull it into the cutting area. Guide fingers are disposed between the tenderizing blades and the slicing blades for guiding the meat into the cutting area. This general arrangement of elements is common to a number of prior art meat tenderizing devices, such as is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,672,716 of Dickey, which also includes stripper plates for preventing the meat from wrapping around the rollers. Such wrapping of the meat around the rollers occurs frequently when raw meat is being tenderized or cut.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,163,123 of Huse, there is shown a meat tenderizing machine having the general structure of parallel shafts having interleaved cutters geared together to counter rotate relative to each other to draw the meat into the cutting area. Spring loaded fingers interspersed between the blades function to guide the meat into the cutting area and to prevent the meat from wrapping around the shafts. Inasmuch as the Huse arrangement does not cut the meat into strips, it is less likely that the slab of meat will wrap around the shafts, although such wrapping can occur in the Huse mechanism if the guide fingers are not present and functioning.
As discussed in the foregoing, many of the prior art devices are directed to meat tenderizing, i.e., scoring the meat, and not to meat slicing. Even the Deckert arrangement, which does slice the meat, simultaneously scores the meat into the cutting area as the tenderizing blades pull the meat therethrough. In all such cases, the apparatus is designed to process raw meat. Of the foregoing patents, only the Repiskey et al. patent disclosed a slicer that does not simultaneously tenderize the meat.
In restaurants which serve Chinese cuisine, it is much more efficient and economical to cook the meat before slicing or cubing it. Cooked meat loses most of the glutinous tendencies of raw meat and thus is less likely to cling to the cutting blades or to wrap around the shafts. On the other hand, cooked meat is more susceptible to tearing or ragged cutting. Thus, in an apparatus of the type shown in the Deckert patent, the toothed tenderizing wheels, if used with cooked meat, would tend to tear the meat, resulting in unsightly strips or cubes. Even arrangements such as in the Huse apparatus, which apparently does not use toothed tenderizing wheels to tenderize the meat, tend to make ragged shallow cuts in the meat.
Food preparers would appreciate a device that can cut food, such as meat, into neat, clean-cut strips or cubes, whether the food is raw or cooked. The disclosed meat slicing apparatus, as opposed to a meat tenderizing apparatus, are adapted to produce cleanly cut slices, strips or cubes of either cooked or raw meat.
According to one aspect of the invention, a food processing apparatus for slicing food into slabs, strips and cubes comprises a frame, a first and second shaft and first, second, third and fourth subsets of blades. The first shaft is coupled to the frame for rotation relative to the frame about a longitudinal axis of the first shaft. The second shaft is coupled to the frame for rotation relative to the frame about a longitudinal axis of the second shaft. The longitudinal axis of the second shaft is disposed substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the first shaft and is displaced therefrom by a displacement. The first and second subsets of blades are mounted to the first shaft. Each blade of the first subset of blades is displaced along the longitudinal axis of the first shaft from adjacent blades of the first subset of blades by a first displacement. Each blade of the second subset of blades is displaced along the longitudinal axis of the first shaft from adjacent blades of the second subset of blades by a second displacement differing from the first displacement. The third and fourth subsets of blades are mounted to the second shaft. Each blade of the third subset of blades is displaced along the longitudinal axis of the second shaft from adjacent blades of the third subset of blades by the first displacement. Each blade of the fourth subset of blades is displaced along the longitudinal axis of the second shaft from adjacent blades of the fourth subset of blades by the second displacement. The first subset of blades cooperate with the third subset of blades to form a first cutting region therebetween for cutting food to a first dimension and the second subset of blades cooperate with the fourth subset of blades to form a second cutting region therebetween for cutting food to a second dimension.
According to another aspect of the disclosure, a food processing apparatus comprises a frame, a first and second shaft, a first and second set of pairs of cooperating blades, a motor, a linkage and a food orientation guide. The first shaft is coupled to the frame for rotation relative to the frame about a longitudinal axis of the shaft. The second shaft is coupled to the frame for rotation relative to the frame about a longitudinal axis of the second shaft. The longitudinal axis of the second shaft is disposed substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the first shaft and is displaced therefrom. Each pair of cooperating blades in the first and second set of cooperating pairs of blades includes a first blade mounted to the first shaft and a second blade mounted to the second shaft in close proximity to the first blade. Each pair of cooperating blades in the first set of cooperating pairs of blades is spaced apart from adjacent pairs of cooperating blades in the first set of pairs of cooperating blades by a first displacement and is adjacent another pair of cooperating blades in the first set of pairs of cooperating blades to define a first cutting region between the first and second shaft. Each pair of cooperating blades in the second set of cooperating pairs of blades is spaced apart from adjacent pairs of cooperating blades in the second set of pairs of cooperating blades by a second displacement and is adjacent another pair of cooperating blades in the second set of pairs of cooperating blades to define a second cutting region between the first and second shaft. The motor has a drive shaft and the linkage is configured to convert rotation of the drive shaft of the motor into rotation of the first and second shafts. The food orientation guide is movable relative to the frame and adapted to guide unprocessed food into one cutting region when in a first position and to guide previously processed meat into the other cutting region when in a second position.
According to yet another aspect of the disclosure, a food slicing apparatus for slicing food into strips comprises a frame, a first and second shaft, a first and second set of pairs of cooperating blades and a means for rotating the first and second shafts. The first shaft is coupled to the frame for rotation relative to the frame about a longitudinal axis of the shaft. The second shaft is coupled to the frame for rotation relative to the frame about a longitudinal axis of the second shaft. The longitudinal axis of the second shaft is disposed substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the first shaft and is displaced therefrom. Each pair of cooperating blades in the first and second set of cooperating pairs of blades includes a first blade mounted to the first shaft and a second blade mounted to the second shaft in close proximity to the first blade. Each pair of cooperating blades in the first set of cooperating pairs of blades is spaced apart from adjacent pairs of cooperating blades in the first set of pairs of cooperating blades by a first displacement and is adjacent another pair of cooperating blades in the first set of pairs of cooperating blades to define a first cutting region between the first and second shaft. Each pair of cooperating blades in the second set of cooperating pairs of blades is spaced apart from adjacent pairs of cooperating blades in the second set of pairs of cooperating blades by a second displacement and is adjacent another pair of cooperating blades in the second set of pairs of cooperating blades to define a second cutting region between the first and second shaft.
The various objects and features of the present invention can more readily be understood and appreciated from the following detailed description, read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. Like reference characters tend to indicate like parts throughout the several views.